FltUlTS OF QUEENSLAND. 35 



if not better, returns are obtained by planting gill sprouts. The latter have 

 the advantage in that they always develop a good root system before showing 

 signs of fruit, hence their first crop is always a good one, and the fruit is 

 of the best, whereas suckers so-metimes start flowering as soon as they are 

 planted, before they are properly established, with the result that the first 

 fruit is small and inferior, and the plants have to throw out fresh suckers 

 before a good crop is produced. Gill sprouts are slower in coming into bearing 

 than suckers, but the results are usually more satisfactory. Like the banana, 

 once a pineapple plant has borne fruit the fruiting stalk dies down, and its 

 place is taken by one or more suckers, which in their turn bear fruit and die. 

 Pineapples are planted in Queensland in several ways, but by far the most 

 common method is to set the suckers out in single or double rows, from 8 to 

 9 feet apart, with the plants at from 1 to 2 feet apart in the row. The rows 

 soon increase in width by the growth of suckers, and the throwing up of 

 ratoons surface roots thrown off from the original plant, which send up plants 

 from below the ground as distinct from suckers, which come from the base or 

 even higher up the stem of a fruiting plant. It is not at all an uncommon 

 thing to see the rows grown together, so that the plantation appears to be a 

 solid mass of plants, but pathways have to be kept between the rows to permit 

 of gathering the fruit, manuring, &c. Pineapples have been grown in the 

 Brisbane district for the past sixty years, and I have been shown beds of 

 giants that have not been replanted for over forty years that are still producing 

 good fruit. This shows how well at home this fruit is with us; but, in my 

 opinion, it is not desirable to keep the plants so long in the same ground, as 

 the finest fruit is always obtained from comparatively young plantations, the 

 older ones producing too large a proportion of small fruit. From the Brisbane 

 district this fruit has spread all over the eastern coast, and its production is 

 increasing rapidly in several districts. Once the pine is planted, its cultivation 

 is comparatively simple. If in single or double rows, all weed growth is kept 

 down between the plants, and the ground between the rows is kept in a state of 

 good cultivation by means of ploughing or cultivating, the soil being worked 

 towards the rows so as to encourage the formation of suckers low down on the 

 fruiting plants. Manure is given when necessary, the manure being worked 

 in on either side of the rows. 



The pineapple comes into bearing early, and, except where suckers throw 

 fruit as soon as planted, bear their first crop in from twelve to twenty months, 

 according to the type of suckers planted and the time of year at which they 

 are set. Practically every sucker will produce a fruit at the first fruiting, and 

 these will be followed by succeeding crops, borne on the successive crops of 

 -suckers, so that when the whole of the ground is occupied by plants, the returns 

 ,nv very heavy. One thousand dozen marketable fruits is by no means an 

 unusual crop for Queen pines in a plantation in full bearing, and, taking these 

 at an average of 2J Ib. each, you get a return of 30,000 lb., or 15 tons 

 American per acre. The illustrations herewith give a good general idea of 

 the usual method of growing pines, and the method of handling and marketing, 

 as well as of the nature of the country on which they are grown. The illustra- 



